The Secret Skin by Wendy N. Wagner
Paperback, 102 pages
I am going to take a minute at the start of this review to make a point that I have expressed a few times. Social media is a double-edged sword. Every author knows right or wrong they have to use it to promote their work. My interest in this book is an example of social media done right. It is subtle and to me, it is mostly being yourself. For an example of doing it the wrong way, there are some overzealous young writers who send out friend requests, and the moment you accept they invite you to like their page, it used to be a problem that writers would post links to their books in other posts, hey if you like this blah blah.
Somewhere along the line, I followed Wendy Wagner on Twitter. We never really chatted before, I have retweeted her a few times, I noticed the titles of her books. I made a mental note, I have to check out her work at some point. Then one day she tweeted something about this book and I went to my library website and suggested a purchase.
A few weeks later the San Diego library had a copy and now I have read it. I am glad I did because it is a great introduction to a writer from a city of writers I love. I am surprised Wendy and I didn’t cross paths during my years in Portland, but she is coming on the podcast soon.
The Secret Skin is that perfect horror bite-size, how many times over the years have I written about the perfect length for horror being the novella. I know that is not exactly a hot take as most believe that about horror and the novella. This story is an erotic gothic haunted house tale with a cool period settting we have rarely seen – coastal Oregon. Many books in this genre are padded and get dry and boring. Not The Secret Skin which is nearly perfect in pace and tone. You may be thinking that you are familiar with the elements for tales in this type of genre. The classical settings and familiar feelings are there for sure and the execution makes or breaks a book like this.
Silvia Moreno Garcia’s Mexican Gothic worked in part last year because of the unique setting but it would have been dead in the water without powerful execution. Wagner is an excellent writer who tightens narrative screws into the foundation of this story with powerful sentences. It is rare to use a single sentence to evoke major sensations but evocative prose in this book often that way.
How about this line of dialogue?
“You must really be my aunt if the house wants to kill you.”
There is little need to unpack this, but that is the gig so I am going to. There is fear and history in this one line. June’s fear of the house, how she dreads it, and her feelings toward her Brother’s new bride. It also suggests a tension between them over the new marriage etc. So much happens in this one line of dialogue. It got my attention.
Another thing I enjoyed was Wagner’s ability to make creepy moments in single lines like this…
“That was when the house first started whispering to me, and I knew I had to leave Stormbreak as quickly as I could.”
I don’t want to give away the love story, or at least the lust story, you might be able to guess early but it doesn’t make it any less powerful. Parts of the narrative slip at times into second person and this makes for a great reveal of who June is writing to just a little past the halfway mark.
“Hush, house,” I whispered, and as if it had been listening for me it fell silent.”
It all comes together in a fantastic final paragraph. The Secret Skin is a prime example of a book that is not exactly my cup of tea but it is told so effectively that I don’t give a shit at all. The Secret Skin is a great horror novella and comes highly recommended. Wendy Wagner has my full attention now.
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